The degree of oxidation of carbon atoms in organic molecules depends on the covalent structure. In proteins, the average oxidation state of carbon (ZC) can be calculated as an elemental ratio from the chemical formula. To investigate oxidation-reduction (redox) patterns, groups of proteins from different subcellular locations and phylogenetic divisions were selected for comparison…
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Iron smelting! Photo credit: In the beginning, the term actually made sense. When the alchemists and medieval metallurgists started doing experiments to quantify exactly how much iron, say was formed from the smelting of a given amount of iron ore, they found that the weight of the solid iron was always less than that of the ore. Given the decrease in mass, a sensible name…
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Let’s look into sterling silver jewelry using the cross necklace as a point of reference because the cross necklace genre of silver jewelry has plenty of both types of silver jewelry that we’ll need to reference in this discussion. When a silver cross necklace is exposed to air over a period of time it will tarnish or oxidize leaving a dark patina on the cross necklace. Is…
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